Google has inked a deal that will let it buy
Urchin Software for an undisclosed sum, the company said Monday.

San Diego-based Urchin makes Web analytics software and provides on
demand services that let customers track marketing performance. Urchin
tools are available as a hosted service, a software product and through
large Web hosting providers.

The acquisition would be Google's first since October 2004, when the
search engine purchased
digital mapping specialist Keyhole. Google relies heavily on linked
advertising to search results and is in a constant battle for market
share and mind share against Microsoft's MSN and
Yahoo .

Ironically, it was Urchin that had the distinction of being used by
companies to make sense of their Google ads. Search Engine pundit John
Battelle noted in his blog that the deal could be worth $30 million.

"As part of a Google suite of tools, it will take on a decidedly
different cast," Battelle said.

Google executives were not immediately available to comment. No
matter the price, Google said it plans to make Urchin's tools available
to Web site owners and marketers.

"We want to provide Web site owners and marketers with the
information they need to optimize their users' experience and generate a
higher return-on-investment from their advertising spending," said
Jonathan Rosenberg, vice president of product management, Google. "This
technology will be a valuable addition to Google's suite of advertising
and publishing products."

The company's two largest products are Urchin 6 On Demand and Urchin
5.7 analytics software. Urchin 6 reports give specific Web site
visitors information, like how they navigate and what it will take to
keep them coming back. The Urchin 6 On Demand service starts at $495
month. On Demand customers were recently automatically upgraded to
Urchin version 6.2.

Urchin 5.7 software can be customized and run in-house. The basic
modular product can track up to 100 sites today for $895.

Within Urchin's products, Google may see some additional analytics
tools. Urchin's Map Overlay for GeoTracking lets Urchin customers see
traffic patterns and conversion data by city and region, just by viewing
a map. The map graphically indicates (using dots of varying sizes) the
amount of traffic coming to the tracked site from each city, and also
lets users view the number of visits, page views per visit, and
conversion rates for that city, state or country.

The latest Urchin platform also exports reports in several formats,
including XML and Excel.

As a market player, Urchin boasts contracts with more than a million
users including the U.S. House of Representatives, General Electric's
NBC Television Division, Sun Microsystems, Sega, NASA, Qualcomm, SBC,
National Hockey League, Montreal Exchange, British Telecom, Paramount,
Symantec, and EarthLink.

Google did not say how many of Urchin's executive staff or employees
would be staying on. The acquisition is expected to finalize in April
after undergoing the usual round shareholder and government reviews.